Wash hands before you smoke?

There is a thought to ponder. This sign was on the back of one of our customer's restroom doors. Guess they want to make sure you don't contaminate your cigarette, eh?

All in One

Here is a contraption that I ran across in one of the Missouri rest stop rest rooms. You put your hand inside it and it drops soap onto your hands, then water to allow you to wash your hands and then the blow dryer kicks on to dry your hands, all in the same area. What will they come up with next?

Miami, Florida

Here I am in beautiful, sunny, Miami, Florida. Temperature in the 80s and loving it! This location is at a truck stop off I-75 and US-27 just north of Medley, Florida, a subdivision of Miami. I had spent the first several hours in the truck sleeping, but boy did I get a big surprise when I ventured on the other side of the Citgo station where the truck stop was. There was an area layed out like something you see on a caribean island, two tiki bars, game rooms, outdoor eating areas, sand, palm trees, and people enjoying themselves! I began socializing and had a good time before I retired back to the truck to get another round of sleep. Life is rough out here on the road. :-)

Interesting Signs

Driving along I-26 in North Carolina I came across an exit that got my attention. The sign said "Bat Cave". It was off exit 49 where US-64 crosses I-26. It was not the Batman and Robin bat cave, but nonetheless it made me think about Alfred, Batman/Bruce Wayne(Adam West), Robin(Burt Ward), the batmobile and the bat cave. Memories of childhood.

Not much farther down the road I encountered another sign that made me think of my school days, "Carl Sandburg Home, National Historic Site". This was at exit 53 off I-26 in North Carolina.

Oh, if I had the time. I am tucking all of these places away for further investigation/visiting when I retire, still hoping that we will be able to afford the motor home that we have dreamed of for so long so we can travel this great country of ours and visit these places.

When I mention what I want to do when I retire to other truckers they think I am crazy because that is all they do out here is travel the country. All they want to do is settle down in a home and stay on one place when they retire. Not me, I want to change the view out of my windows frequently. Maybe not as frequently as I am doing as a truck driver, but I still want to do it.

I can understand someone who has been driving all of their life wanting to settle into one location to retire, but I want my wife to be able to see the country with me and at a much slower pace than driving a truck. I want to take the time to meet/greet the people when we stop, not just smile at them and then move on down the road.

Off to reading more signs and finding more interesting places.

Smile, it increases your face value.

Auxilary Power Units (APU)

The last time I passed through Cleveland, Ohio I parked at a Walmart and ended up speaking with a seasoned professional Walmart driver who was parked there as well. He was a talker and was a very nice gentlemen. I have always been impressed with the cleanliness and appearance of the Walmart trucks, trailers, and drivers. The opportunity to chat with this fellow gave me some insight into the Walmart drivers experiences.

This gentlemen had originally worked his own trucking company that hauled garbage in/out of New York City, Manhatton, Queens, Bronx, etc. He knows New York inside/out. He finally decided to move on after a friend who worked for Walmart convinced him to come to work for them. It was not an easy decision to make, but he figured he was not getting any younger and was tired of dealing with the stress of running his garbage collection company.

He has driven for Walmart for 16 years now and is making close to $100,000 a year. He still drives national but gets his weekends off. He has been married/divorced a couple of times and talked proudly about his kids. One of them just got his masters degree and is working in an engineering position at a large company out of Chicago.

He took the liberty of showing me the Auxilary Power Unit that Walmart has been installing onto their tractors in order to prevent fines for idling tractors in New England. The only time I had ever been exposed to APUs was in the military, on aircraft that I maintained. What a novel idea to put them onto tractors.

The APU runs like a reefer on a refrigerated trailer. It uses diesel fuel and runs to keep the tractor cabin temperature at a comfortable level during any season. It also provides sufficient electrical power for any electronic devices that a driver may want to use, i.e., TV, VCR, DVD player, microwave, coffee pot, etc. These devices run on battery power until the batteries reach a certain level. When the batteries get so low, the APU automatically kicks on to charge them back up again and to run any electrical devices that may be in use in the cabin of the tractor.

It would be nice if Schneider were thinking about putting APUs onto their tractors, however at this point I have not heard anything to indicate they are going to do this. It would save them a lot of money and wasted diesel fuel from idling engines. It would also be a perk for drivers that will be available from other companies in the near future.

A Bear in the Woods!

A voice came over the CB, "West bound watch out for the bear in the woods at mile marker 176.8. This is not the police, it is a real live bear, a grizzly bear, full grown, watching the trucks go by from the woods."

Sure enough, as I drove by in the dusk, I could just barely see the huge bear off the north side of the road. The concern was whether or not the bear would stay there or come out into the road. The other concern was for the saftey of anyone who might just stop to check their tires, load straps, or any other emergency situation that might come up with their rig. The bear might have them for dinner.

I have no idea what ever happened with the bear, but it brought back my thoughts as I was putting on tire chains in Laramie, Wyoming back in the winter, not thinking at all about what wild animals might be in that neck of the woods. I only thought about it afterwards and thought how stupid I was for not taking the time to assess the whole situation prior to getting out and putting on my tire chains.

The bear was sighted in Pennsylvania, off I-76, between Breezewood and Houstontown, near the Buchannon Forest area.

I have never seen a bear off the freeway before. All I have seen are packs of deer, antelope, cows, horses, and the like.

The only other bear I recall ever seeing was in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, while my wife and I were on vacation there. There was a couple along the roadside there, and then there was one in our trash can at the cabin one night. My wife was all excited and wanted to watch the bear through the window of the cabin. I told her she was crazy, because the windows and the doors of the cabin was not going to keep that bear out if it saw her and thought she looked yummy too.

What a place to sit!

Passing through Missouri on my way to Texas I stopped near a little town called Cuba off I-44 to use the restroom. It was one of those small truck stops and it was pouring down rain. After going into the place and making a U Turn in the parking lot I decided to park under the awning in an attempt to stay dry. Well that did not last long. The attendant came out and told me that I had to move my truck because she could not see any of her pumps to authorize. I got back into the truck and pulled forward to clear the pumps so she could see them. If I had thought about it, I would have pulled under the awning at the other end of it. That way she could have seen her pumps and I could have stayed dry while going to/from the restroom.

I got into the restroom and could not believe what I saw. Now I wish I had taken a picture to post on my blog. Hind sight is always better than fore sight it seems. There was a guy sitting in one of the urinals that hangs from the wall. He was sound a sleep or passed out, just sitting there as comfortable as can be. He was leaning back into the urinal, using the back of it as a chair back and his cell phone was laying on the sink counter top next to him.

I proceeded to use the urinal next to him, all the while watching him to make sure that he did not wake up and make any brash abrupt movement to harm me. I then washed my hands and laughed while leaving the restroom. When I got back out into the store area of the gas station, the attendant had a big smile on her face. I asked her if she knew about the guy sitting on the urinal in the restroom and she said yes and that she had called the police. The police arrived about the same time that I was walking out the door. When they came in I laughed again and told them what I had seen in the restroom.

I left right after talking to the officer and have no idea what they did with the guy, but I am sure it was an interesting turn of events. I would not want to put a guy into my cruiser who had his back against a urinal and his butt sitting in the bottom of the urinal.

I never thought of trying to sit in a urinal like that nor did I ever think I would see someone sitting in one. I am sorry that I did not think about taking a picture. It would have been priceless.

I am sure I will see many more things that are not imaginable while traveling across this great land of ours.

Wife Travels with me for a week

I finally reached the end of my probationary period and I was allowed to take my wife out with me for a week. It does get interesting having her along. She is helpful in making me meals and reading the maps/directions. I enjoy her company. We do get on each others' nerves occassionally, but who wouldn't being stuck inside a 9 by 12 foot truck cabin for an entire week together. We don't spend this much time together when we are at home! All in all, I have enjoyed having her with me, but it is not something that she would like to do all the time, so it will be solo driving for me until we get to the point where we buy our motor home and travel the country together. She will have more room in the back of the motor home and can enjoy herself while I am driving down the road. By the time we complete this trip, we will have traveled a total of about 4,500 miles together in the truck. Below is her story about the trip. Her name is Deb.

This is Rick's wife, Debbie. I agreed to ride along with him for a week. I am currently unemployed, having been laid off a month ago. So, I had the free time, and he wanted me to go, so I went.

He asked me where I would like to go, and I said Texas would be nice. I knew he had deliveries there in Atlanta, Texas, so we figured it would be a good chance we would go there.

Well, he got his assignment for 3 different deliveries in Texas - El Paso, Edinburg, San Antonio, and then we stop in Atlanta, Texas to pick up a load to take to Ohio. El Paso is right on the border of Mexico in the western part of the state, and Edinburg is one of the southernmost cities in Texas, and San Antonio is near the middle of the state, and Atlanta is on the east side of Texas.

I knew that Rick worked very hard at his job, but knowing that and experiencing it are two different things! It is a constant race with the clock to be a truck driver. He must log everything he does - when he stops for a break, when he starts driving, when he goes to sleep, etc. Everytime we stop for a break, he must make an entry in his logbook before we start back up again. The paperwork in this job is unreal! But it is necessary. He also must make an inspection of the truck before we start back driving - check the tires, the hitch, etc.

He puts in very long days - his day is 14 hours long! 11 hours of driving and 3 hours for breaks. Then he is required to take a 10 hour break. We have been going to bed anywhere from 2-4am every day and getting about 6 hrs of sleep,
getting showered, breakfast, and then starting all over again. I don't know how he does this every week - it is a very tiring job, and it is also very monotonous. But, he really enjoys it.

Another thing to get used to is the actual ride of the truck. It is VERY bumpy! You feel every bump in the road. I have been on my laptop alot of the time, and it is kinda hard to type with all the motion. I was communicating my friend, Sarah, on AIM, and alot of my words were garbled because I would try to hit one key and would end up hitting another, or even missing that key altogether! lol!

OK, enough about the mechanics of the trip - I also wanted to write about things that we saw here in this beautiful state.

I always heard that Texas is a big state, but believe me, it is HUGE! It took us 2 days to drive from El Paso to Edinburg. But along the way, we have seen some really nice scenery. We actually had to drive into New Mexico to get to El Paso.

This was the first time for each of to be in this state. It is very beautiful. We have seen some beautiful mountain ranges - the mountains are so different than what we have near Ohio/Kentucky/WV areas. The mountains in Texas aren't covered in large trees, but covered in cactus and rocks.

We also saw several herds of antelope - they are so pretty! I tried to take a picture of them, but it is hard to do from a truck window when you are driving at 60 mph! lol! Due to the schedule, we were unable to stop to take pics.

One thing that we saw that we thought was so amazing were dust devils! I had never heard of them before. Here is a link to see what they look like -
http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/earthsci/imagearchive/dust_devils.htm and a video of them - http://www.animalu.com/pics/dd1.htm. They travel quite a distance and throw dirt everywhere.

More unusual observations about Texas:

The speed limit:
The speed limit is 80 mph in some areas!! That is insane! It is 65 at night. And there are no cops on the long open stretches. I guess they figure if someone is stupid enough to go faster than 80 mph, then they deserve to get in an accident. lol! We were unable to go faster than about 63 mph due to the thingys they have on the engines to limit their speed. I forget what they are called.

Flat stretches of land:
In some areas of the state, it is so flat that you can see for what seems to be 20 miles away! There are no trees, buildings, or anything to block your view. This is amazing to me. In Ohio, you are lucky to be able to see across the street before a shopping center blocks your view.

Miles and miles of nothing:
On the way from El Paso to San Antonio we were on Interstate 10 and there were miles of nothing, and then there would be a house. There was nothing in-between - just cactus. I would hope that there aren't many emergencies out there, because there is no one around to assist!

Windmills:
We passed large windmills that were on the mountains. I believe these massive machines are used to create wind energy? They are so beautiful! Here is what they look like: http://www.palmsprings.com/services/wind.html.

Large crosses:
We saw 3 HUGE crosses in Illinois and in Texas. Here is a link
to one that we saw - http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==4116 and http://www.crossministries.net/. We saw one in the daytime and another one at night. It is more beautiful at night - it almost glows!

Longhorn cattle:
We have cows in Ohio, but not the Texas Longhorn cattle. I wouldn't want to mess with these animals! Check them out here - http://cattle-today.com/Texas%20Longhorn.htm.

Dry environment:
We live in Ohio, which has very high humidity. When we first got to Texas, we were hit with the dry environment. I didn't realize at first what was going on with my eyes - they were constantly dry - which is unusual. I was putting in eyedrops almost every hour! lol! Then we realized it was the lack of humidity. It took a couple of days for our bodies to acclimate to this environment. It is similar to the dry environment that we experienced in Arizona a few years ago - I love the dry air, but it takes a little getting used to.

Living at Walmart?
This is no lie - we stopped at a Walmart in San Antonio and in the parking lot, next to the street, was a house. At first we thought it was just like a museum, or something like that. But, no - it was a real house and someone lived there! It was like Walmart built this superstore around this house? WTF??

Right now, we have made the first three deliveries and are now on the way to Atlanta, TX to pick up a load that goes to Ohio. We should be home this Friday. Yay!!!

Overall, I am glad that I came on the trip - it was very nice to spend time with my hubby, but I will be very glad to get home! It was also nice to see more of this great country of ours.

This is a trip that I will never forget! I really had a great time! It was quite an adventure.

Luv ya, Sweetie! Thanks for letting me tag along!

Road Obstructions

This afternoon I encountered a huge drum in the middle of the road when I was taking the ramp for I-65 South/I-40W in Nashville, Tennessee. The drum must have fallen off someone's truck and was lying in the right hand side of the left lane. I had thought we had all come up on a traffic jam but was surprised when I encountered the huge obtacle when it was my turn to avoid it. The drum was about 4 feet in diameter by 8 feet long and was lying on its side, the round side, so it was a wonder that it was not rolling around on the road. I called the state highway patrol number who transferred me to the metro police for Nashville. When I asked them if the drum had been reported, they said yes and that they would get someone out there to move it as soon as they were available. My thoughts were that they might as well go ahead and send a wrecker, fire truck, and ambulance if it were going to take that long, because someone would sure enough hit the silly thing and create a huge pile up.

This is not the only time that I had encountered obstacles in the road. The last time was when I was returning from the east coast and a flat bed carrying huge transformers lost one of them in the middle of the road. I was sitting still for over an hour waiting for the road to open back up. It was closed down while wreckers attempted to get the huge transformer picked up and put back onto the flatbed.